Bowling-alley.



PATENTED MAR; 10, 1903. W. H. WIGGINS.

BOWLING ALLEY.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 5. 1903.

El) MODEL.

WITNESSES:

U BY

\ ATTORNEY scend or roll by gravity, thence downwardly U I-Tao STATESPATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM H. WIGGINS, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO THE BRUNS-WIOK-BALKE-COLLENDER COMPANY, or NEW YORK, N. Y., A COR- PORATION OFOHIO.

BOWLING-ALLEY.

SEECIFIQATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 722,340, dated March10, 1903. Application filed January 6, 1903. Serial No. 137N775. (Nomodel.)

full, clear, and exact description of the same,

reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of thisspecification.

My invention relates wholly to those parts of an alley commonly knownand designated as the ball return-way of the alley-rthat is, the trackor runway on which the bowled balls are returned from the pit end to theplayers end of the alley for reuse-and the side buffers, arranged ateitherside of the pin-platform of every modern alley-bed. Previous to myinvention these ball return-ways had been constructed in a variety ofways, and'always, of course, sothat a ball placed on the pit end of. theball-track would doand along toward and onto the terminal of thereturn-way located at the players end of the alley; but in allconstructions of return-ways heretofore made the ball-track has alwaysbeen supported by means of some sort fers made as heretofore it has beenfound in practice and with the advance of the exof metallic or otheryertical supports, arranged at intervals: on top of the-stringerbeam orpartition-strip, which usually runs either at the side of one or betweena pair of alleys and usually on topalso of a side buifer of the alley,said ball-track being properly secured in some manner to the upper endsof suchsupportingdevices, commonly denominated irons, and prior to myinvention the side buifer, which isa sort of heavy hardwood partition orwall located one at each sideof the alley-bed at the vicinity ofthepinplatform, has always been constructed to extend upwardly a littlehigher than the .upper ends of the spotted pins, theirons orsupports"for that portion of the ball return-way that is located over or nearsaid side buifer projecting upwardlyfrom the top of the said sidebuffer. In :the'mor approved or latest styles of bowling-alleys theseball returnways have had the greater portion of their lengths supporteda comparatively short dismaintain their original positions.

tance above the said stringer-beam or partition-strip, and hence abovethe level of the alley-hallways, so as toobstruct as little as possiblea fair view by spectators at the sides of the alleys of the games beingbowled on the latter. However, the said vertical supporting devices orirons (of a greater or less height) have always been necessary to theconstruction of the return way, and of course these supporting deviceshave necessarily been somewhat longer or higher at the inclined pit-endportion of the return-way than elsewhere, so that even'under the latestor mostapproved construction the ball-tracks have been liable to soonget out of order or lose their perfection or rigidity of position onaccount of the practical impossibility of having these vertical supports(either made ,of wood or-metal, although the latter is most always used)made sufficiently strong to Furthermore, this construction of return-way of course'involves, necessarily, considerable expense in themanufacture and use, in the manner explained, of these supportingdevices or irons.

In the use of alleys having the side bufpertness in the sport or game ofbowling, first, that the height of the side bnifer proves inadequate toserve all the purposes of the expert bowler, since the latter ofitimesis unable to cause a pin forcibly stricken by his ball to be deflectedproperly by the side buffor to effectuate the design or object of hisstroke, and, second, that a pin which may 1 have been stricken veryforcibly by an athlet-ic bowler will fly over'the top of the sidebufier, often interfering with the game being played on an adjoiningalley and sometimes infiicting serious bodily injury on the pit-boy ofanother alley, and experience has demonstrated that it is practicallyimpossible to effectuate a rigid and durable maintenance in place ofthose irons which are arranged at the'vicinity of and on the sidebuffer, since at the pit-end portion of the return-way the throwing intothe cage or onto the trough of way soon getting ehackelly and out ofrepair,

while at the same time rendering the side bufier more efficient inaction and wholly preventing any flying of a pin from one alley toanother and endangering the pit-boys.

To these main ends and objects my invention may be said to consist in anovel construction in which the ball-track or the rails of the ballreturn-way is or are during the long low -down horizontal portionmounted directl y on and securely fastened to a stringerbeam of thealley, in which the side buffer. is extended upward sufficiently to havecomtion ofthe said ball-track and in which the latter is mounteddirectly on and securely fastened to the top of the side bulfer, all aswill be hereinafter more fully explained and as will be mostparticularly pointed out in the claim of this specification.

To enable those skilled in the art to make and use bowling-alleysinvolving either par-- which I have so far very successfully and veryextensively practiced it, though mere modifications of form and detailmay ofcourse be made without departing from my said invention so long asthe construction involves the essential characteristics herein shown anddescribed.

In the drawings, Figurel is a perspective view of a pair ofbowling-alleys built accordingto my invention. Fig. 2 is a detailvertical cross-section, on an enlarged scale, taken at the dotted lines2 2 of Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a detail vertical cross-section, on the samescale as Fig. 2, taken at the line 3 3 of Fig. 1, and in the severalfigures the same parts will be found always designated by the samereferonce-letters.

A and B are respectively the hallways, while 0 is the back end orswinging buifersupport of an ordinarily-constructed pair of modernalleys having the balk-lines located, as usual, at f f and beingprovided with the usual newel-post at a for the proper support of theplayers end of the ball-terminal and lower terminal-rack, lettered,respectively, b and a, while F F are the usual swinging bnli'ers at therear of the alley-pits, and D D are the two outer side buffers, and Ethe intermediate or middle side buffer, the latter of which, as shown,has mounted directly on it and fastened securely thereto the rails ofthe pit-endportion (or sweep, as it is generally called) t' ofj the balltrack or returnway. Thisball-track, as will be readily seen, afterdescending at its sweep portion i passes rearwardly in a horizontaldirection at h until it about reaches the locality of the balklines f f,from which, by preference, it slopes upwardly, as seen at g, and thenrunshorizontally to the newel post, said latter horizontal portionconstituting the terminal b,

heretofore alluded to, and during all the.

horizontal portion hof the track it is securely fastened in place bothto the floor of the alley and to an intermediately-arranged piece orpieces m, as best seen atFig. 3,.where it will also he observed that oneither side of the ways h h of the return-way are located the usualball-gutters G of the'alleys, allof these parts being securely fastenedtogether and to the floor of the alley-room in any proper andsubstantial manner. bined directly with it the inclined pit-end por- AtFig. 3 I have'illustrated bya dotted. circle the position occupied byone of the largestsized balls while traveling homeward on the low-downhorizontal portion h of the returnway, and by a smaller dotted circleone of smallest-sized or pony balls, also traveling homeward or to theplayers end of the alley, which pony-ball, however, does not (like thelarger one),pass up the upgrade g and thence onto the terminalb of thereturnway, but passes through a yoke inorenlargementof. the spacebetween the ways of the return-way, -.where the inclined portions gmerge into the horizontal portion h, and continues rolling rearwardlyalong and remains on the rearmost portion thereof or on the rack c, allas plainly illustrated in Fig. 1, the construction I have shown thusinvolving this sort of separation of the larger from well known to thoseskilled in the art and heretofore invented and patented by myself.

It will be understood, however, that this preferable form andarrangement of the parts of the return-way are not at all peculiar to mypresent invention, the essence of which lies in having the horizontaltrack-rails h, as well as the rearward obliquely-ascending portions orthe sweep i, placed directly on and securely fastened, respectively, tothe fioor or stringer-beams, or both, of an alley or pair of alleys andto either the top of the intermediate side bufier of a pair of alleys orto the top portion of one of the sidebuffers of a single alley,whereby,as heretofore remarked, not only do I produce a return-way more stable,more economical to manufacture, and more desirable in all otherstructural qualities than any heretofore made, but one in which whileall vertically-arranged supporting devices are dispensed with the longsubstantially horizontal portion of the return-way or ball-track may beplaced as close to the level of the floor and hallways as may be desiredand as may be possible without any conflict between a misplayed ballwhich may be rolling down one of the ball-gutters? and a home-comingball on the return-way, th us producing a con struction of bowling-alleyin which the ball ret urn-ways do not in the least interfere with theperfect view of the games progressing on the hallways, no matter howmany of the latter nor how many return-ways may be involved in thebowling-alley or bowling-alley room in which my invention may be used,and whereby, furthermore, I provide for use a bowling-alley structure inwhich the side bulier is rendered more efiicient as an operative elementof the alley, while at the same time rendered capable of preventing theflying of a pin from one alley to another to the detriment of the gameand to the possible injury of a pit-boy.

The detailed construction of the side bnfier device, which permits aneasy, permanent, and economical direct combination therewith of thepit-end portions or sweep of the balltracks 11, may be varied inthediscretion or judgment of the skilled constructor, though the preciseform which I have shown and which is best seen at Fig. 3 I have found tobe admirable in the practical use of my invention.

What I claim, broadly, as my invention, and desire to secure by LettersPatgnt,is-

In a bowling-alley, the combination, with the usual bed, or ballway, andpit, of a side bulfer which extends upwardly to the elevation at whichthe sweep, or pit-end portion, of the ball return-way must be located;and a ball return-way having its sweep, or inclined pit-end portion,mounted directly on, and permanently secured to the top of saidupwardly-extended side bufier, and having its lowermost main, horizontalportion mounted directly on the floor, or stringer-beam of the alley;all in substantially the manner and for the purposes hereinbefore setforth.

' In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand'this 29th day ofNovember, 1902.

WM. H. WIGGINS.

Witnesses:

J. N. MCINTIRE,

EDWARD F. BAYER,

